But inasmuch as it may be said that the instances which I have been quoting are divine works, whereas to live righteously
is a work that belongs to ourselves, I undertook to show that even this too is a divine work. This I have done in the present
book, with perhaps a fuller statement than is necessary, although I seem to myself to have said too little against the opponents
of the grace of God. And I am never so much delighted in my treatment of a subject as when
Scripture comes most copiously to my aid; and when the question to be discussed requires that “he that glorieth should glory
in the Lord;”108110812 Cor. x. 17. and that we should in all things lift up our hearts and give thanks to the Lord our God, from whom, “as the Father of lights,
every good and every perfect gift cometh down.”10821082Jas. i. 17. Now if a gift is not God’s gift, because it is wrought by us, or because we act by His gift, then it is not a work of God
that “a mountain should be removed into the sea,” inasmuch as, according to the Lord’s statement, it is by the faith of men
that this is possible. Moreover, He attributes the deed to their actual operation: “If ye have faith 112in yourselves as a grain of mustard-seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, “Be thou removed, and be thou
cast into the sea; and it shall be done, and nothing shall be impossible to you.”10831083 Compare Matt. xvii. 20, Mark xi. 23, Luke xvii. 6. Observe how He said “to you,” not “to Me” or “to the Father;” and yet it is certain that no man does such a thing without
God’s gift and operation. See how an instance of perfect righteousness is unexampled among men, and yet is not impossible.
For it might be achieved if there were only applied so much of will as suffices for so great a thing. There would, however,
be so much will, if there were hidden from us none of those conditions which pertain to righteousness; and at
the same time these so delighted our mind, that whatever hindrance of pleasure or pain might else occur, this delight in holiness
would prevail over every rival affection. And that this is not realized, is not owing to any intrinsic impossibility, but
to God’s judicial act. For who can be ignorant, that what he should know is not in man’s power; nor does it follow that what
he has discovered to be a desirable object is actually desired, unless he also feel a delight in that object, commensurate
with its claims on his affection? For this belongs to health of soul.